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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR, ERIN BERRY

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR OF "CHRONICLES OF IDIOT" ERIN BERRY

Hi
Erin! It is wonderful to have the opportunity to interview you, thank
you so much for sharing some time with us. I would love to know more
about your professional 'Igor' experience!Hi Kitty! Thank you so
much for this my first interview, and for GMTA, it is such a wonderful
service for independent authors like myself. You guys rock!

OK,
the short answer for being a professional 'Igor' is I used to assist
scientists in doing genetic research. No, I do not have a hump or an
accent, but I did do some interesting work re-animating life. Just
kidding. It was mostly work with fruit flies and genetic engineering.
Fruit flies are fun and they don't bite!

Now you also have a
degree in Zoology and a master's in genetics. I have to say you sound
like an extremely intelligent young woman. Tell us about your desire to
pursue these avenues and have you ever thought about working at a zoo?

My
desire to pursue those educational avenues led me to become the
“professional Igor”, which was interesting. But I do not consider myself
incredibly intelligent, just stubborn. And I would say that everyone is
a genius at something and an idiot at something else. We all have our
strengths and weaknesses.

Here in Tucson, we do have the
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Reid Park Zoo and I would love to work
for either organization. But since I haven't worked for a zoo, there is
the double edge sword of not having enough experience for the job but
the only way to get experience is to have the job. I could volunteer,
but that would not leave a lot of time for writing.

What got you into writing and when did you decide you had a penchant for it?

It
was August 2008 and the Beijing Olympics had just had their opening
ceremonies. This was also the time when two Georgian hunters claimed
they had killed a “Bigfoot” and had it stashed in their freezer.

I
read an online statistic that more people were interested (clicking on
stories) about the Bigfoot than the Olympics. That got me thinking that
people want these urban legends to be true, and why not have a
government agency to distract them with this sort of nonsense. That led
me to write “The Chronicles of IDIOT”. I am still trying to decided if I
have a penchant for writing, I certainly like writing satire.

Tell
us about your book "Chronicles of IDIOT" and if you plan more with this
or if you have other books you are thinking for writing and what genres
they are.

The Chronicles of IDIOT is about a secret
Government bureau that is entirely devoted to distracting the American
public from what the Government may or may not be doing. What do they
use to distract the public? Well what distracts you? Reality TV,
sensational news, traffic jams, spam, even UFO's, IDIOT uses anything
and everything that works to distract people! I have ideas for
continuing “The Chronicles of IDIOT” including a prequel.

Right
now I am working on an action/adventure with a bit of satire. I am
hoping it will be my first novel, but that is hard to say right now. It
is set in the southwest and I am still in the ideas stage.

Out
of all the jobs you have, part-time writer, full-time mom, and the
possibility of going into one of your intellectual fields following a
degree which would you choose over all and why?

Well, being a
Mom is a lifetime position if everything goes well. So, that is what I
choose over everything else. I have also thought of going into Nursing,
but that would mean going back to school. Just thinking about going back
to school (the expense, homework, etc) gives me a headache. I am not
really sure where my life will take me, but I am enjoying writing right
now.

If you had to choose one major inspiration in your life as far as your writing is concerned what would it be?

Honestly,
I do not know if I could name one major inspiration. I would credit my
parents with being avid readers, which led me to become an avid reader. I
read all types of genres: historical fiction, sci-fi, chick lit,
classics, action/adventure, and suspense. I only hope that our influence
will help our kids to become avid readers as well. I think that
becoming an avid reader helps you not just in learning to write, but is
just adds to your life in so many other ways. From there, my father also
is a published author, although his work is Architecture technical
manuals and he is on a much different road than I am.

Off the mark question, here it comes. Tell us about one of your most embarrassing moments in your life.

When
I was around six years old, I won a coloring contest at McDonalds that
let me go on a the “Wallace and Ladmo Show”. This was a kids morning
show in Phoenix and I was really excited. When I got there and was sat
down with other kids, they told me that the camera would be shooting
when the red light on top of it lit up. When I saw that red light I
froze. Ladmo tried to ask me my name, I couldn't say anything. Talk
about performance anxiety! I was not on the show but I did get a Ladmo
bag full of goodies. There many are other embarrassing moments in my
life, but I have conveniently forgotten them on a daily basis.

Who are some of your major literary inspirations?

Any
successful writer is an inspiration in some respect, but here are some
of mine specifically: Terry Pratchett, Mark Twain, J.K. Rowling, P.G.
Wodehouse, Douglas Adams, Neil Gaiman, and J.A. Jance. Wow, I guess I
like initials! But I could not do that – E.E. Berry sounds too much like
e.e. cummings.

Do you ever let your family critique your writing? Why or why not?

Yes,
I let my family critique my work all the time. My mom (bless her) was
my first editor. My uncle is convinced that some of my sentences are
run-on sentences but I tell him that people in science do this all the
time and for me it is just a artifact from my previous career. It is
great to have so many people in my family interested in my writing.

Do you have any advice you'd care to share with other authors? Please leave us your links so we can get to know more about you and your works!

I
guess the best advice, is one that I try to follow. Keep at it, keep
writing. Don't get discouraged. Even if it is just for you, or you reach
one person, then it is worth it!

Here is my sometimes snarky, sometimes opinionated, blog link:

chroniclesofidiocy.blogspot.com

I can also be found at Facebook:

facebook.com/ErinGuthrieBerry and @ErinBethBerry is my handle on twitter.